As some of you know, Radiohead latest album was released online, but the catch was that you could pay any price you thought it was worth. They apparently sold over 1 million albums in less than a week with estimated $10 million to boot. All that money goes to the band, and I mean all of it. They cut out the middle man which was the record label. Now artists like Saul Williams and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails are following suit.

This concept doesn’t stop at music. Now print media is getting in the game. Paste Magazine is now offering subscriptions for any price (min $1.00). You get this music culture magazine plus a cd every month for what you think it is worth. This promotion will only last two weeks.

Imagine if Kanye West did this, he would of probably tripled his sales and he would kept most of the money. Now if the fuel companies, my landlord, and my favorite record store follow suit, I will be a happy camper.

Finally the world is now right again…sort of. One of my favorite shows is returning as full length feature on DVD (now only if they can bring it back as a series; I can only take so much of ‘My Sweet 16th Birthday’). Futurama: Bender’s Big Score will be released on DVD late November. Here is the trailer to hold you over.

As some of you know, I am now backing Stephen Colbert for president; however, he is only running in South Carolina. This poll and this report got me thinking. Why does South Carolina get all the fun? Let’s get Stephen Colbert on the Ballot in Wisconsin. Anyway it is easier to get on the ballot in Wisconsin than South Carolina. Plus the deadline is not until Sept 2008. Colbert will only need 2000 signatures of registered Wisconsin Voters.

Why do I want to do this? Is to give these real comedians who call themselves politicians a wake-up call. These candidates only care about money not the real issues in this country (Republican or Democrat). They use canned speeches and cliches when they talk to us. I bet none of them can have a true honest discussion from the heart. If Stephen Colbert, can get higher in polls, maybe the politicians might change.

So Mr. Colbert please consider to be on the ballot in Wisconsin (it is easier). Hey if Arnold and Jesse can do it, anything possible.

Doing the evening shift at RadioMilwaukee is cool. I know I have the hipper audience; however, one disadvantage is that I miss a lot of good shows that happen during the week. Which for a music fan, really sucks. It is kind of like being a person who loves chocolate, works in a chocolate factory, but can’t eat the chocolate. Here is where the site of day comes in. Fabchannel carries videos of live performances from a variety of artists, and styles. Not just snippets, but pretty much the whole show. You can even create a ‘playlist’ of your favorite show and share them with the world.

With a team of dedicated, music loving directors, editors, programmers and promoters Fabchannel has built one of the biggest online concert archives in the world. 700 full-length concerts, festivals, performances, debates and lectures can be freely experienced in the Fabchannel video on demand archive. Live from the famous Paradiso and Melkweg Amsterdam.

Here is concert of Eric Roberson. An artist that you can hear on RadioMilwaukee. Plus the quality is much better than youtube. Other artist include Andrew Bird, Bonde Do Role, Diplo, Frank Black just to name a few.

I decided to start a new blog feature in addition to the ‘Site of the Day’ post. It will be called ‘Don’t Sleep On’. The feature will showcase a new artist that you need to know about and that can also be heard on 88Nine RadioMilwaukee. We kind of started this with our previous post on Rahj and Taylor McFerrin.

So in this Don’t Sleep On we will showcased an artist originally from Philadelphia. Her name is Santogold. We mention her a few months back in my post on “What is Black Music: Part Deux”. I have know about her for a little over a year. She is now getting a lot of press as of late. She was even hand-picked by Bjork to open for her in Madison Square in NYC. We are currently have Santogold’s ‘Les Artistes’ in rotation.

Taylor McFerrin (son of Bobby McFerrin) is one of my favorite artist right now. He is like a one-man show on steroids. He also plays with Rahj which is one of the artists we play on RadioMilwaukee. Milwaukee venues you need to bring him here!!!

Debt sucks. I can say that with experience. Just when you start to see the surface, you get knock down with some other expense. However, in the UK an organization is helping people with debt by asking them to volunteer their time for a charity. I love this concept. Only if someone in this country would do this (hint to credit card companies). The site is called Do Good 4 Debt. The site will be officially starting up in January 2008.

Do Good 4 Debt works very simply:

If you are in debt, you sign up to the site and complete your profile. This profile will then be viewed by the companies looking to sponsor somebody to go and work for a charity. (Note: your profile will not be made public ever and only pre-screened companies can view you profile).

If you are selected by a company, you will have the option of a small group of charities to go and work for in exchange that your debt is paid off under the sponsorship. (Note: There is a maximum amount of debt that can be paid off).

You will be given a trial period with the charity and if you and them are happy then a full agreement will put in place and at each milestone of your charity work, a chunk of your debt will be paid off.

Upon completion of your placement, you will be asked to put together a short presentation on your time spent with the charity and present it back to the company that sponsored you.